Apple Says Sorry For Slowing Down Older iPhones

Over the last few weeks there has been a lot of discussion about what Apple has been doing with older iPhones. The company has been slowing down older handsets with degraded batteries in order to solve an issue where the devices would randomly shutdown.

Now Apple has released a public apology on its website, the company is facing a number of lawsuits over the slowing down of older iPhones. You can see part of the statement from Apple below.

“We apologize. There’s been a lot of misunderstanding about this issue, so we would like to clarify and let you know about some changes we’re making.

First and foremost, we have never — and would never — do anything to intentionally shorten the life of any Apple product, or degrade the user experience to drive customer upgrades. Our goal has always been to create products that our customers love, and making iPhones last as long as possible is an important part of that.”

There have been rumors for years that older Apple devices get slower and many people have suggested that this is done to encourage people to upgrade. Apple has now confirmed that they have been slowing down handsets, but not for the reasons some people have suggested.

This was only introduced about a year ago when Apple released iOS 10.2.1, this includes a new was to manage power on older iPhones like the iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6S, 6S Plus and iPhone SE. What Apple does is manage the maximum performance on these handsets in order to stop the device shutting down.

So it looks like Apple released this update to fix one problem and in doing so created a much larger problem. In order to fix the issue with shutdowns, Apple had to slow down these older iPhones that have a degraded battery. You can see a statement from Apple on this below.

“With the update, iOS dynamically manages the maximum performance of some system components when needed to prevent a shutdown. While these changes may go unnoticed, in some cases users may experience longer launch times for apps and other reductions in performance.”

As well as apologizing, Apple is now offering customers who have these issues with their handsets a new battery at a reduced cost. Normally a new battery from Apple will set you back $79, Apple will not offer it for $29.